Saundra McDavid

Dear Saundra

I am writing to clear up some things that have been written recently about the Eagle Informer, and me, online and in the Boise Weekly. I want to make it clear that I am speaking for myself. There are partners in this business that may or may not share my opinions. First of all, I would like to apologize to anyone that was offended by the article in the BW. Some of what I said was taken completely out of context. I have learned a valuable lesson. While trying to be unbiased I realize that I need to walk that walk. Looking back I can see now that even though I have been spewing about living a positive life, my thoughts have not been entirely positive. I am guilty of listening to gossip. Right now I am battling against cancer, I am fighting for my life. I know that I need positive energy all around me. I face a huge surgery in 3 weeks. I need to put all of my energy into my health. I did not sign on for this publicity. I don’t know much about the politics of Eagle, and I am not sure that I want to. The Eagle Informer is as unbiased as a publication can get.

Some history of how the article in Boise Weekly came about. I returned a phone call to Nathan of the BW. In his message he said he had some questions about our new magazine. He never identified himself as a reporter, nor did he tell me he was working on an article. I had no idea that I was being interviewed. He, in my opinion is trying to create news instead of report news. He talked about the news war going on. It seems to me that each of the entities that cover Eagle cover it from a different perspective. I was and am still unaware of a news war. Further, I never said that the Chamber or the City had helped us with this magazine. The only ‘help’ was via their websites. Any information we received was thru our own footwork. He asked how our idea came about. I gave him several reasons. One of which was the lack of clear, unbiased reporting on the mayoral election from both sides. Another reason was the water issue. LONG before that, my husband and I talked extensively about producing a newsletter that covered happenings in Eagle. There is so much being done to improve Eagle that is behind the scenes. It’s not behind the scenes by design, it’s really just impossible for anyone person to attend all the meetings taking place. Our staff personally attends a minimum of 21 meetings a month. The distinction of this magazine is that we are providing information only. You will not read an opinion in this magazine, ours or anyone else’s. I am not sure why we have been linked to the mayor. We don’t have anything in either of our first two issues about him. We have made request for information via the mayor and I believe he has forwarded our requests to the appropriate departments. Some have sent us information; some have not.

We are informing everyone in the 83616 zip code of meetings and happenings. If you pore over the magazine you will see that. We have decided to expand the free coverage to include entertainment as well. Some people talk about issues without getting the facts first. We are doing our best to provide dates, times, places of everything going on in Eagle so that you can attend the meeting that may affect you. Attend if you can, then draw your own conclusions. Our staff actually attends the city council meetings; we don’t have to wait for the minutes to go thru their due process. Our partner is the only reporter that attends these meetings regularly, and by regularly I mean for 17 years. Eagle Informer is a new company; certainly we have room for improvement. If you have a suggestion, give me a call. Let’s talk about it.

We did approach the city about being a resource for the city to communicate events and happenings. The city of Eagle spends close to $3000.00 for a single communication to its residents. We made an offer to include any information that the city would like to include, whether it is about the 4th of July celebration or an important meeting. We agreed to print as much news as the city needed to communicate at that price. The city contracts for services all the time. If they need a water heater serviced in city hall, it would not make sense to call all plumbers just to be fair. We are no different than any other service for which the city may contract. The communications task force is looking at the different ways that the city can communicate to the residents. In the end I still believe that Eagle Informer is the right choice. Our calendar format was designed to make it easy for anyone that wants to be involved to know how and when important meetings are happening. The city may at times use many resources to get the word out. We are just that, a resource for the entire community. It would make sense that you read the publication before you decide its value. The phone number is in the magazine and I welcome questions, suggestions and input that are of value to this wonderful community. I won’t be reading any blog posts so please forgive me if I don’t respond. My health is my only concern right now.

Mary Defayette